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Camarillo Airport was originally established in 1942 when the California State Highway Department constructed an auxiliary landing field with a 5,000 ft (1,500 m) runway, which was later extended to 8,000 ft (2,400 m) in 1951 to accommodate what by then had developed into Oxnard Air Force Base.

In the years following the closure of Oxnard AFB in January 1970, the County of Ventura actively pursued the acquisition of the former military base property from the Department of Defense for commercial airport use. This initiative ran into public opposition, opposed primarily by local residents concerned about the noise of growing commercial traffic. In 1976, the transfer of the airport was finally approved, provided the runway length was shortened to 6,000 ft by displacing the runway threshold on one end. By 1985, the airport was entirely managed by the Ventura County Department of Airports.[3]

For 12-month period ending June 5, 2006, the airport had 153,360 aircraft operations, an average of 420 per day: 98% general aviation, 2% air taxi and <1% military. There are 600 aircraft based at this airport: 84% single engine, 8% multi engine, 5% ultralights, 3% jet aircraft and 1% helicopters.[1] It is an FAA-towered facility and there are three Fixed Base Operators are headquartered at the airfield.

The Camarillo Composite Squadron 61 of the California Wing of the Civil Air Patrol is based at this airfield. The CAP facilities are located near Sky Blue Air, at the east end of the airport.